Examples of the prior art of scroll-type fluid displacement apparatus are disclosed in the below listed patents:
______________________________________ Patentee ______________________________________ U.S. Pat. No. 801,182 Creux 3,817,664 Bennett et al 3,884,599 Young et al 3,994,635 McCullough 4,129,405 McCullough 4,192,152 Armstrong et al 4,300,875 Fischer et al 4,343,599 Kousokabe 4,484,869 Nakayama et al 4,490,099 Terrauchi et al 4,497,615 Griffith 4,505,651 Terrauchi et al 4,515,539 Morishita 4,550,480 Tanikawa et al 4,553,913 Morishita et al French Patent No. 836,142 Lasnier ______________________________________
The prior art discloses scroll apparatus employed to pump and compress fluids, and also as motors or engines driven by fluids. However, the prior art makes no suggestion of a scroll apparatus as an internal combustion engine.
A scroll apparatus may be considered as spiral wraps interfitting in a tangential relation to define a pocket between the wraps and relatively orbital to move the pocket and enlarge or reduce its size according to the direction of orbital movement.